During a rally in Duluth, Minn., after opening with a swipe at the “dishonest,” “fake news,” U.S. President Donald Trump claimed to have “liberated towns out of Long Island” from MS-13 gang members.
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Trump and his Republican supporters have been criticized in recent weeks for a zero-tolerance immigration policy that saw children separated from their parents at the U.S-Mexico border for the purpose of prosecuting the parents.
After ridicule from Democrats, Republicans and several media personalities, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that intends to keep families who arrive at the U.S. border together.
Despite this, Trump said during the rally that the border will remain “just as tough as it has been,” as cheering crowds shouted “Build a wall!” in the bleachers.
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“Today I signed an executive order, we’re gonna keep families together, but the border is going to be just as tough as it’s been.”
The president also accused Democrats of not caring about “the impacts of uncontrolled migration on your jobs, your communities or your hospitals.”
He went on to say that while the U.S. welcomes immigration, the Trump administration wants to bolster a merit-based immigration system instead of allowing people to enter the country “through luck or happenstance.”
“We have so many companies moving back into our country. We need people to help but we want them to come in through the merit system,” said the president.
Trump also touched on his recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore as well as the USD$200 billion in tariffs that the U.S. recently placed on China.
He claimed that illegal immigration has cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars.
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